Box-office bombs and Barbarella casting crises aside, we hear today that the Robert Rodriguez Girlfriend Roundelay may have simply been too crowded for Rose McGowan to keep her place during the couple's bust-up. A tipster sends word that Rodriguez has moved on to 22-year-old Kat Dennings, the Charlie Bartlett ingenue currently shooting Shorts with the filmmaker in Austin; the duo has reportedly been seen at locales around town — including Rodriguez's hot tub, we're told — but for all we know that could just be a bit of refreshment after a long, midsummer day under the scorching Texas sun.

And Dennings's smitten blog post from May about her "redonkulous superhuman" director (excerpted after the jump)? That's probably just a genuine gesture of professional respect:

I must note that I'm in Texas at the moment, filming a movie with redonkulous superhuman Robert Rodriguez. And as I tilted my head to look at the pavement tonight while we were talking I felt the ground give way beneath me and I've been a peanut butter person ever since. Holla

Holla! Of course, in the same breath she demands "the guys from the BBC's Top Gear to go with me everywhere," so maybe she's just friendly like that. Anyway, neither Dennings nor reps for Rodriguez have responded to our requests for comment, so we'll just wish them well and caution Dennings against going public with that Women in Chains! starring role Rodriguez promised her after McGowan suddenly became, ahem, unavailable last week.